7 Magnitude quake in oaxaca

Close to Pinotepa Nacional magnitude 7. depth was 10 Kilometers, to early for any damage report from authorities.

navegator

Revised magnitude 7.5 (?)
Depth 38Km

Centered in the city of Pinotepa Nacional.

Mex 200 connecting Salina Cruz to Acapulco passes through downtown.

Too many highway grade cuts in the region to dismiss the probability of a severed roadway. Pinotepa, is a long way to any major population so the trapped and injured have a long wait in front of them. Many Zapoteco indigenas in that region. Oraciones Oaxaquenos :(

Hoping for no deaths or injuries.

In Zihuatanejo, we were reading and relaxing all afternoon, and felt nothing. However, we are on a different tectonic plate.

More than 150 after shoks some 5.8 and lower some of the tall buildings sway, we do not feel them since we are in an area that is very hard rock, they have to be arround 6.5 or more to be noted, my wi/e is a good seismometer she tels me to stop shaking her, been arround quakes all my life, I like them!

The house in California I quake proofed so that it might move but will not fold, I reinforced the walls and roof as an upside down boat hull when we remodeled the kitchen and bathroom.

So far Saturday morning 00:33AM no casualties reported just some structural damage, l hope that is all.

navegator

The Minister of the Interior and Oaxaca Governor were out surveying the damage in a helicopter and crashed upon attempting to land. Two deaths which I am assuming were the pilot and co-pilot, and the two officials made it out alive.

Our friends family lives in the mountains above Pinotepa. As of last night, no power or communications, but a reporter got a message out that everyone there was OK.

The casualties known so far were persons on the ground when the helicopter lost visibility and went down and rolled over, hopefully that is all it will be some time before the damage is known, it was a long one it was more than one minute of movement.

navegator

The real key is the land. My pueblo sits on rock to the point where building a septic tank with leach fields (done right) is a real effort. Strong backhoe that can move 1,000 pound chunks of basalt.

The Jello soil of Mexico can wiggle like dessert gelatin. God help the Chilangos if a 7.0 + quake occurs on the fault that runs alongside Popocatépetl.

Los Pinos is in the Chapultepec hills for a reason and it's not because of the view.

This is a way more descriptive measurement for the immediate regional effects of a terramoto.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/mercalli.php

Seven casualties all on the ground waiting in an open field near two vehicles acting as a reception for the governor. Cause of failure -- unknown.

The slow response to reporting damage on the ground is due to the remoteness of the area. Many indigenous dwellings there are adobe mud brick.

Even the federal highways are thin-skinned potholed asphalt

Highway terrain cuts have near vertical sides. A nightmare for land slides. Old engineered bridges even over small arroyos.

Many of the rural villages are at the end of trails suitable only with 4x4's. not even Chicken Buses can traverse them. Aid will be a long time coming.

UPDATE translated from newspaper Reforma

Sedena assumes
responsibility
in accident

SEDENA, admitted responsibility for helicopter crash in Oaxaca; The Governor said that dust the helicopter raised when trying to land disoriented the pilot.